In recent years, a variety of methods for capturing a high-resolution image have been developed. These image pickup methods fall into two categories: a method for increasing the resolution of an image pickup element, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor, and a method for using a plurality of image pickup elements so as to capture a high-resolution image.
The latter method, that is, the method for using a plurality of image pickup elements so as to capture a high-resolution image is described in, for example. Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1.
In the method described in Patent Document 1, an image is captured by using the aperture of a CCD sensor and a so-called pixel shifting method. That is, this method is quite simple. A light beam is split in four directions by a prism. To receive each of the split light beams, CCD sensors are shifted from each other by a half pixel.
The method described in Non-Patent Document 1 is used in the Mega Vision method supported by the Mechanical Social Systems Foundation. An image is separated into three sub-images by a prism. The three sub-images are captured by three HD camcorders.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-45508
[Non-Patent Document 1] “Description of Mega Vision supported by the Mechanical Social Systems Foundation” at Machine Industry Memorial Foundation website (URL: http://www.tepia.or.jp/14th/hds.html, searched for on 17, Jan., 2005)